On the Mend {and Getting Stuff Done}

I'm still feeling pretty miserable. And I have practically no voice.

At least Ben was home today again.

The original plan for him being home was to get some things done around the house. Particularly decorating for Christmas. Noah has been begging to "go bye-bye Mommy", so Ben let him come outside for a few minutes with him to "help" Daddy hang some of the decorations.

Ellie watched, jealously, from behind the new glass/screen door. {Dear One, I. love. it. And I love you for hanging it. And for getting me cough drops. You are, seriously, the best.}

And, while we are on the mend and are getting a few things done, we're also taking lots of rest breaks.

Shutterfly {Card Preview!}

As a thank you for writing the post about their holiday goodies, Shutterfly gave us free Christmas cards... check out some of the ones I made for us this year:

Oh Ornament Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

I just love them already, Thank you Shutterfly!

Sick and Tired

I'm sick. And tired. And sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.

Lucky for us, Ben had planned to take today and tomorrow off, long before the three of us got sick.

And lucky for me, Noah feels comfortable enough now with his breathing treatments that he will hold the mask himself. A huge step from the first treatment on Friday in which he screamed. the. entire. time. Both of the kids are feeling better {though, they've still got wicked coughs} and I've all but lost my voice.

Buddy, I can hardly believe you'll be three in just over a week.

Family Photo Day

For a while now, we've planned to have a Family Photo Day with the Life Group and then take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. I was nervous about it as soon as the kids got back from the clinic... mostly because I wasn't sure if three days would be enough for them to feel well enough to go outside for an hour or so to take photos and then go out to CEC to play. They seemed like they felt well enough {honestly, it was me that felt the worst, I think and Noah was begging to leave the house} ,and only the Carroll's were going to be able to make it, so we went ahead and met them in downtown Abilene to try to get a few good family photos for each family's Christmas Cards. The kids held up pretty well, all things considered. Noah was not pleased when it was time to leave "his Jadie". Good thing he didn't know that I had also nixed Chuck E. Cheese!

Here are my favorites from the shoot:

{This one is going to be our Christmas card photo!}

Heading Home

I woke up feeling miserable.

Partly because my family was going to have to leave. Partly because I haven't gotten much sleep the last few days. But mostly because my kids passed on their sickness to me.

At least I've got a new TV to nap in front of this evening.

Everyone had things to do before they were able to leave...

Daddy-Man helped BB get her new TV all loaded up into her truck for the drive back to OKC.

Nana did a few puzzles with Noah... who seems like a new kid compared to yesterday.

Aunt BB got some extra snuggle time in with Ellie.

And, as promised, I'm not posting the only photo I took of Jessie and Bryan today... but I am saving it for blackmail later on... or maybe for their wedding video. ;)

Dearest Family, thank you. For taking care of my kids, me, and Ben. For coming down here for your first Thanksgiving away from your parents {Mom and Bryan!}. For freezing off your hands while deboning a turkey. For doing dishes, laundry, installing a new glass/screen door, staying out until all hours of the night for good deals, and a multitude of other things. I love you more than words can say and am so very thankful for each of you.

Black Friday

Where to begin??

First, Ben and BB sat out. ALL. NIGHT. LONG. at Target to get THE TV deal of Black Friday: 40" LCD HDTV for $298.

It was freezing.

Literally.

But I'm so glad they did... the new TV is amazing. Thank you, Dear One! And I'm glad you got one too BB!

While Ben and BB were at Target all night, Jessie, Bryan, Daddy-Man and I went up to Walmart, just before they opened at midnight. Mom stayed home with the kids, trying to get some rest. After deciding not to wait around in line for our "back-up TVs" {Ben and BB were NOT first in line, despite having been at Target since 8:45PM and the main point of being in Texas this year was to get our TV}, we got in the long line to check out. I did take a few pics with my phone while we were there, but I don't have a microSD adapter... so, no photos. Just as we were checking out around 2AM, Mom called saying that Noah had woken up, with a fever and was breathing raspy. Once home, we gave him some more medicine and he finally went back to sleep. Daddy-Man and Jessie went up to Target to help out Ben and BB, Mom and Bryan went to JC Penny's, and I stayed home to get some rest, planning to take the kids into the doctor as soon as possible.

Once everyone arrived back home around 6:30ish, we ate some breakfast, looked over the spoils of the day, got the kids up and while everyone else went to take naps, Mom and I took both kids to the walk-in clinic.

Diagnosis: Noah has bronchitis and Ellie has the upper respiratory crud that is going around.

{sigh}

Noah had to get a breathing treatment while we were there... it. was. horrible. Both kids got antibiotics and decongestants... and Noah was sent home with a breathing treatment machine.

I got far more than I bargained for this Black Friday.

Later in the afternoon, once we were back home with the kids and everyone had had some lunch, Ben, Daddy-Man and Bryan got to work on our new screen door... only to have to stop because of the lack of proper tools. I'm so excited about the new door that I can barely contain myself.

Just before our pizza dinner {with leftover ham, YUM!}, we posed for photos in our new Black Friday shirts. We all kept the same call names, despite Mom's urging that she get a new one. Bryan's official call name is Merlin {Solider, you did great on your first ever BF!}. I used the YuDu to put the parachuting shopper on the fronts and freezer stencils {cut with the Silhouette} to put our call names on the backs.

Male Flight

Fem Flight

Future Black Friday Shoppers.

Noah already seems to be feeling a little better and actually sat still for his remaining breathing treatments for the day. And Ellie hasn't ran a fever since yesterday afternoon... so, hopefully they'll all be feeling better soon.

After we put Ellie down for bed, we started setting up the new TV!

And by the time Noah was in bed for the night, we were ready to watch Toy Story 3!

Happy Black Friday, everyone!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Turducken turned out great. The skin on the turkey split, exposing part of the duck and chicken, but despite the fact that it didn't look very pretty, it tasted great. Even the stuffing! Though, I'm fairly certain that if {and that's a big IF} I ever make one again, I won't use a duck again. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite either. It also spent nearly another 2 hours in the oven than the recipe called for {good thing we had a ham too!}... partly because we didn't realize that duck is technically a red meat.

Ellie still wasn't feeling too great and ended up going down for her second nap, even before Thanksgiving lunch. During lunch, Noah was acting a little crazy and we realized that he too, was running a fever. Nana quickly got him to take a nap, after he got some fever medicine.

Ellie woke up ready to indulge in her Thanksgiving feast too!

After waking up, seemingly happy and not sick, from his nap, Noah got to open up his birthday present from Nana and Papa. It goes without saying that he loves his new Thomas. {Thanks Nana and Papa!}

We laid our plans out for Black Friday shopping, took some naps, and finished up our shirts!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!

Turducken Prep {and the Family Arrives}

{Just a warning... the photo below is not for the faint-of-heart!}

I, personally, didn't take a single photo today. My day was literally a whirl-wind of baking, cleaning, cooking, and dealing with a slightly-feverish little girl. And, needless to say, when my family arrived after naps, and Ben shortly thereafter, the busyness didn't slow down.

One of the things that kept me {and BB... and eventually Mom and Ben too} was the preparation of the Turducken. We had never had one before and wanted to try it, but decided that making it ourselves would be a little cheaper than ordering one online. I had already deboned the chicken when we bought it {and then froze it}, but since the duck and turkey came frozen, I had to wait until today to debone them. I worked on the duck while BB prepared the stuffing. {We used Paula Deen's recipe for Turducken... and as a side note, we used HALF the amount of stock that she recommended.} Then BB and I both worked on the turkey together.

It. was. a. pain.

I just hope that it's going to be worth it. And I'm so grateful that BB wanted to help!

Here's what the three birds looked like before we started the lacing up process:

Once we started trying to get the massive bird laced back up, we had to call in the back-ups.

Ben and Mom had to help us finish lacing the birds up... can't wait to try it!

Winner and Playtime

Congrats Tracie! You won the codes for the Shutterfly goodies! Enjoy!

***

Jadyn came over this afternoon to play with Noah. After having a rest time {getting to watch a movie}, I sent the two of them outside to enjoy the unusually warm weather and sidewalk chalks.

I'm pretty certain they both enjoyed themselves... and that Noah simply can't wait until Spring already.

A Cloth Bum

I've been tossing around the idea of switching to cloth diapers for a while now. It all started when I was still pregnant with Ellie and dreaming of potty training Noah. I considered switching because I thought it might make it easier for him to train and then I could use them on Ellie. That was in 2009.

I seriously wish I had done that.

Fast-forward a year. Potty training Noah. What an ordeal! Again, I considered it, but decided to just put the boy in underwear instead and deal. And I did. {And I also threw some underwear away... if we're being honest.}

One thing I realized through it all, I can handle dealing with poop.

So, the week before last, I made the decision. The decision to at least try cloth diapers. I ordered a few and they arrived just before we left for Oklahoma. With just enough time for me to get them prepped to be used once we got back. Now, these aren't the same cloth diapers we had when we were kids.

They are new and improved. BumGenius 4.0.

Meet the cutest cloth bum around.

I'm barely one day in and I already love them. And am planning to order more soon. We'll still be using disposables {for travel, church, and probably overnight}, but not nearly as many as we were. One of my friends mentioned that she can't believe that I'm just now switching... being the Dave Ramsey girl that I am, and all. I'm in shock too... and really wish we had started with Noah!

Saving money and maybe even helping the environment a little? Perfect.

Another Busy {& Long} Day

I love mornings around my parent's house. Everyone is usually still in their PJs, reading the paper, eating breakfast and chasing the kiddos.

Or snuggling with them while they are indulged in watching VeggieTales. Again.

Jessie, Bryan, and I went over to Grami and Papa's early in the morning to finish up their engagement photoshoot {in Oklahoma, at least}.

Here are my favorites from the day:

In all, over the past two days, we took nearly 400 photos. I've got a lot of weeding out and editing ahead of me!

{Another one of my favorites.}

Afterwards, we went back to Mom and Daddy-Man's, ate lunch, and then packed up the Sequoia to return home... and made it home just in time to eat dinner and load up in the car for Life Group!

Everyone is coming down here for Thanksgiving, so no long goodbyes - BUT - Thanks. A Bunch. We had a blast and hope ya'll did too! See you in a couple of days!! ♥

Photos + Words

There's so many photos from today, that I'm just going to do a simple photos + words post today!

Playing with Papa, early in the morning.

Playing with some of Mommy's old toys over at Grami and Papa Snow's house.

Grami + her great-grandbabies

Playing with the circus train with Papa Snow.

Them, before lunch at SodaPops.

Playing on the trampoline after lunch.

Sneak peek from Jessie and Bryan's engagement session from this afternoon.

Taking a break after baths to read a quick Thomas story... before we leave to see some Christmas lights.

I don't want to forget: how Noah was begging to go home... until after we left the park and then was practically begging to go see more lights.

First trip to Braum's. And WAY past bedtime.

She loves herself some orange sherbet.

I never want to forget: how Noah tried EVERYONE'S ice cream.

And how he finished all of them off for us.